Lamine Yamal saw his hopes of becoming the youngest player to win the Ballon d’Or dashed on Monday night as Harry Kane picked up the Golden Ball.
Kylian Mbappe finished second in the voting, meaning Yamal had to settle for a third place although he did also win the Kopa Trophy for the third time.
France Football’s editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia has shared his thoughts on this year’s award and feels Rodri may have been a problem for Yamal when it came to the voting.
“I do think there was a split in the voting between Rodri and Lamine Yamal from that Spanish team that won the World Cup,” he told L’Equipe.
“I think Rodri took votes away from Lamine in this ballot. There was some fragmentation of the Spanish vote and, above all, Spain stood out as a team. That’s why it was difficult to single out one individual performance as being clearly above the rest.”
Garcia also spoke about just how tight it was a the top between Kane and Mbappe.
“The battle between Kane and Mbappé was incredibly close,” he added. “The gap was even smaller than the one between Rodri and Vinícius in 2024, which was 41 points, and that was already a slim margin.
“Mbappé led the race for a long time, but Kane ultimately came out on top. Mbappé had an extraordinary season. The race between Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé for first place this year was unbelievably close.”